https://meet-global.bnext.com.tw/articles/view/47579
These technology transfer agreements allowed SCL personnel to travel to the US and Japan for in-person training and learning. SCL quickly disseminated this info to the rest of the company. They augmented this trade knowledge with university academic partnerships.
Using these resources, the company advanced very quickly from the 5 micron process technology down to a 0.8 micron process in the late 1980s. 0.8 microns, or 800 nanometers, was first achieved in 1987 by leading companies like NTT, Toshiba, and Intel.
So at this point, SCL was one semiconductor generation behind the leading edge. It seemed possible that India could achieve its goal of being a global semiconductor manufacturer within a decade.
Those hopes ended in 1989, when a devastating fire broke out at SCL. The cause of the fire remains unknown. A few sources have claimed, without evidence, that it was arson. Which I guess can make sense since SCL was making processors for the military at the time.
It would take until 1997 - 8 years - and substantial financial investment north of $50 million - before production finally restarted.
By then, new entrants like TSMC (which was founded in 1987) and Samsung had entered the race. And they quickly raced ahead of the rest of the world, capturing critical global market share and scale. India lost untold amounts of progress.
Today, SCL mostly does R&D work with its old 6 inch wafer fab. Recently in 2019, they announced that they are able to accept chip designs at the 180 nm node.
This is nowhere near the leading edge. But of course, there are plenty of viable commercial cases for fabbing semiconductors at higher nodes.
The more critical issue has to do with extremely sluggish development. It took SCL nearly a decade to reach that 180nm node.
They have been working on it since at least 2011, when they paid millions to Israel's TowerJazz Semiconductor for a fabrication unit.
SCL in the early 1980s had the advantage in that everyone else in the rest of the world was not too far ahead of them. Taiwan and China had yet to move into semiconductors. And the equipment back then was a lot cheaper.
Tens of thousands of Indian engineers work directly in VLSI design and their chips are taped out in leading edge fabs around the world. Virtually all of the world's biggest fabless chip companies have an Indian presence.
To conclude, there is no shortage of ideas - and human talent - for possible approaches to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to Indian shores. But there must be consistent, long-term direction from the very top - and fountains of money committed to that direction.
For India, the market has long passed the phase when a private entity can seed a thriving semiconductor manufacturing industry without outside help. The government has to do more to catch up.